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Introduction to Rocklin History Series<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Recent archeological evidence indicates earliest human habitation of the Rocklin area at about 7,000 years ago.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Nisenan, Rocklin’s Earliest Culture<\/b><\/a><\/font>
They built their villages on low rises along Rocklin’s streams, hunted game animals in Rocklin’s hills and meadows and gathered fruits, nuts, seeds and roots here for 2000 years before European explorers<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin: Prosperous and Growing in the 19th Century<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In February 1893, Rocklin’s population was expanding, its industrial base was solid and business was booming, so its electorate approved a ballot proposal to incorporated as a city.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin’s Roundhouse 1867 to 1908<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1862, during the Civil War, the United States Congress authorized Federal incentives for construction of a rail line to connect eastern population centers with California. In January 1863 the Central Pacific Railroad started laying rails eastward from<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Holmes \/ Renaldi Shootout in 1914<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1914, Rocklin’s once-booming granite industry was waning due to labor strife and competition from cement-based concrete. The Southern Pacific Railroad had moved Rocklin’s roundhouse to Roseville 6 years earlier. And a peace officer died in the line of duty for the...<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin, A Town Built on Granite<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Downtown Rocklin is astride a 100 square mile belt of high quality and easily accessible granite that extends from Folsom to Lincoln. Assisted by easy access to rail shipping, granite mining and creation of finished granite products formed the backbone of Rocklin’s economy<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Huff Spring<\/b><\/a><\/font>
The spring was a widely known Rocklin curiosity and source of clean drinking water in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. A nearby cluster of 88 bedrock mortars and about 4 acres of gently sloping terrain, partly covered by Springview School’s soccer field, tell that the area was formerly home to a large community of native Nisenan.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Where did “Rocklin” come from?<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Our city’s name first appeared in print in June 1864 when “Rocklin” was listed in a Central Pacific Railroad timetable as a stop between Junction (now Roseville) and Pino (now Loomis). But how did the name, “Rocklin”, originate?<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Finn Hall<\/b><\/a><\/font>
They dragged hay bales across the floor to make it slick, and then they danced to the music of Rocklin’s Echo Band until midnight. They adjourned upstairs for supper, rested awhile with the quarry-worker band members and then danced until 3 am.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Whitney Ranch (1 of 3)<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1854, Boston businessman George Whitney visited San Francisco to see the four oldest of his six sons. The four had come to California individually at various times during the Gold Rush and<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Whitney Ranch (2 of 3)<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1857, Boston merchant George Whitney established a 320-acre sheep ranch near a small South Placer County granite quarrying community. That community would later supply stone for construction of<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Whitney Ranch (3 of 3)<\/b><\/a><\/font>
During the 1860’s and 1870’s Joel Parker Whitney, called Parker then, expanded his Spring Valley Ranch from 320 acres to 18,000 acres.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Saint Mary\'s through the Years<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1882 John Bolton, the Irish land developer who plotted Rocklin’s original town site, donated an oak framed lot to Rocklin’s Catholics for our City’s first Catholic Church.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Clover Valley<\/b><\/a><\/font>
According to Sierra College Geology Professor Dick Hilton, the valley started to form five million years ago as the Sierra range lifted and tilted westward. Runoff streams wore down millions of years of rock and gravel deposits<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Major Professional Golf in Rocklin<\/b><\/a><\/font>
The year was 1964. Lyndon Johnson promised a quick victory in Vietnam and was elected President over Barry Goldwater. Arnold Palmer won the Masters for what turned out to be the last time. Rocklin’s population was about 1,600 <\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Porter\'s Saloon Token Brings $325<\/b><\/a><\/font>
On December 19, 2005 an unidentified collector paid $325.00 for a Porter’s Saloon trade token at a Western Americana auction in Reno.
Dewitt Porter’s Saloon was a popular downtown Rocklin watering hole in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin\'s Pyramid Tomb?<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In January 1913, Joel Parker Whitney, called Parker then, died at Del Monte California after a long bout with kidney disease. He was 78. According to Richard Miller’s Fortune Built by Gun, Parker had prepared a pyramid-shaped mausoleum for himself...<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
The Crowd in the Pyramid<\/b><\/a><\/font>
The pyramid-shaped Whitney family tomb is an often photographed curiosity near the 11th green of the Whitney Oaks Golf Course.
History doesn’t record the tomb’s construction date but one family member theorizes that<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin Goes to the Races<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In 1895 horse doctor Mansfield Delano and his wealthy brother Ira, owner of Rocklin’s most successful granite quarry, led a group of nine investors to form the Rocklin Driving Park Association and build Rocklin’s first and only race track.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
A Twenty Minute Tour of Rocklin History<\/b><\/a><\/font>
The Rocklin History Museum is open from 1 pm until 4 pm on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons. If you are in the mood for Rocklin’s history at other times, try this 20 minute tour of two sites which were important to Rocklin’s role as the Sacramento Valley’s major producer of granite products in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Oskari’s Journey<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Eighteen-year-old Oskari left Russian-ruled Finland and came to New York in 1891. He was one of 350,000 Finns who came to America escaping Finland’s harsh political and economic conditions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Whence Came the Altar Stone<\/b><\/a><\/font>
The Rocklin Historical Society is restoring a 124 year old church on Front Street in downtown Rocklin. When RHS completes the restoration in September 2007, the church will be primarily a non-denominational wedding chapel.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin Hose Company Number One<\/b><\/a><\/font>
In the early 1890s, demand for Rocklin’s light-gray granite building stone grew steadily and Rocklin’s quarries were at peak activity. Rocklin’s railroad roundhouse employed 300 people and businesses flourished along Granite Avenue (now Rocklin Road),<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Delano\'s Quarry<\/b><\/a><\/font>
According to state records Rocklin was the principal granite producing point in the Sacramento Valley in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rocklin’s largest and most financially-successful quarry operation of those times was Ira Delano’s Rocklin Granite Company.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin Golf Courses<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Rocklin challenges golfers with two top-tier golf venues, Whitney Oaks Golf Course and the course at the Sunset Whitney Country Club. But in the late 19th century Rocklin was also home to one of California’s first golf courses, a nine-hole circuit in the middle of the Whitney Ranch.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Run Rocklin<\/b><\/a><\/font>
On March 14, 2004, Run Rocklin, called Rocklin Run for the Gold then, raised $8,000 to save Rocklin’s oldest public building from the wrecking ball.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Twelve Bridges<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Much of western Rocklin is astride the southern 12,000 acres of the Spring Valley Ranch of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This is property which Rocklin annexed while the city\'s population grew during the past 45 years<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
A Haven for Hoboes<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Rocklin\'s location at the terminus of the westbound trans-Sierra run made it a magnet for freight train hoboes. Sensing that they were at the valley floor after a tortuous boxcar ride downhill from Norden, hoboes disembarked to rest, and possibly to wander in the area seeking better lives.<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr>
Rocklin and the magical seventeen<\/b><\/a><\/font>
Was there something special about their years training in Rocklin that brought the San Francisco 49ers from obscurity to greatness, and then back to obscurity when they left? Is there something special about Rocklin?<\/newsum><\/a><\/font><\/td><\/tr><\/table>');